Well, we didn’t make the 10th of July and we’re now booked to move in on the 17th and we really can’t push it out any further. I was warned that the ‘finishes’ take a long time but this seems quite ridiculous. And it’s hard to believe that with literally a week or two to go, the contractors can still make monumental mistakes.

Last weekend I arrived at the house to find huge holes chopped out of all the showers. After weeks of insisting that the reason we were not getting hot water in any of the bathrooms was because of a problem with the gas geysers, the plumber finally admitted that the mistake was his as he had put all the diverter pipes in the wrong place. By this stage all the walls had been plastered and tiled. Last Saturday was not a happy day.

The diverters have all been repositioned this past week and fortunately the tiler – a private subcontractor with nothing to do with Esprit, managed to source a box of tiles from the same batch originally used, so there are no colour variations where the repairs had to be done.

Little by little we’re inching forward. Site visits are still a complete headache as we continue to discover unexplained discrepancies. Amoretti installed two lovely ‘barn’ sliding doors, but fitted them with bright yellow brass handles completely at odds with all the other ‘door hardware’ in the house… A rather portly gentleman from the kitchen and cupboard company managed to break the bullnose off the bottom stair yesterday, while a misguided cleaner mopped unsealed marble with filthy water and singlehandedly changed the colour of all the bathroom floors which now have to be ‘skimmed’… We have decided to delay that process until we’ve moved in so as to have a modicum of control over it. And last of all, the library shelving which is meant to surround the sliding doors, has been installed straight across the door opening, reducing the height by approximately a foot… This is completely and utterly inexplicable and when I asked the complacent, genial cabinet-maker to show me the drawing from which he was working, he replied that he ‘didn’t have one…’

And so we fight on. This is how things are going:

The chimney pots are in place. Heather in Suffolk, this one’s for you!

The generator has been delivered.

The generator looks alarmingly small but apparently they have become more ‘streamlined’ of late. It has not been connected yet, but hopefully once it is up and running, it will be able to keep the more essential parts of the house functioning during our increasingly frequent power outages.

Godfrey, a bricklayer, working on the steps from the garden to the path.

The front garden (by which I mean the area on the north (sunny) side of the house, not the side where the front door is – this can be confusing for Americans…) has been raised to just below the level of the veranda. These steps are necessary for getting down to the path that runs down the west boundary and leads to the park. They are steeper than I would have liked but I didn’t want them to encroach too far into the lawn and garden. I have had gaps left in them for planting.

Some of the kitchen appliances are in place.

The oven still has to have its ‘feet’ attached which will raise it to the correct height. It is still wrapped in plastic. In this photo you can see the small, glass-fronted cupboards running along the top. They are lit by tiny lights above. Having downsized considerably, these are for displaying favourite pottery items that I seldom use. There will not be much other storage space in the house for non-essentials. I saw cupboards like these in several American kitchens on Houzz, to which I’m mildly addicted. I had a little trouble getting the cabinet-maker to understand exactly what it was I was looking for and arrived one day to find them fitting solid doors – despite the clear evidence of the light fittings. But now they’re done and it was worth the effort.

The oven is still wrapped in plastic. It is a Smeg with a gas hob and electric oven. Fortunately I have got used to using a similar one in the house in which we’re currently living and I’ve loved it. The kitchen tops are Caesarstone and the colour is panna cotta. I chose it with the idea that it would tie in with the wooden floors – once they’re uncovered.

Fridge and Microwave in place.

Trellis going up on the driveway wall, opposite the garage.

So this was how things looked on Friday afternoon. Each time I visit the site I come away with Dusty Springfield’s “Little by Little” playing in my head. ‘Little by little by little by little by little,’ we inch towards occupation.

That sucks Jacqui. We really feel for you. Doing the finishes and watching everything come together should be the exciting part of having your own house built to your designs. Just move in and control the final touches yourselves. It sounds wonderful. Are we invited to the house warming party?